I regret that this thread is simply going round in circles.
On the one hand we have safeware, who I am assured is a highly qualified chap, who can read to us 'chapter and verse' the various levels or degrees of risk and goodness what else. We have AC Ovee who claims that the Nimrod bomb-bay cannot have a fire suppressant system because it is too big and leaks a lot and then when he has things explained to him, questions whether or not grain silos fly through the air at 200 kts!
The fact remains, whoever you listen too, that we lost an aircraft and its crew, to an accident which almost certainly could have been avoided or prevented.
Since then, there have been a number of almost identical incidents, involving Nimrod aircraft where the crews are very lucky to be with us still.
Now, how much more evidence do you guys want? How many more aircraft do we need to lose, before you stand up and say 'just a minute, this is NOT acceptable'??
Nimrod 4 (who cares if its MR/MRA/Mk ??) is going to enter service with the same inherited problems as the MR2, FACT.
The AAR system is going to be the same as the MR2, FACT.
It will NOT have any form of bomb bay fire fighting kit , FACT
Do you not, any of you, given the facts that we have lost an aircarft and crew, and come very close to losing several more, feel the time has not come when those of us who fly these machines, should simply say NO ??
Would you be happy to fly in them?
Let me leave you with one final question........... The next time you get on board one of Mr Boeings finest with your wife and kids, if the captain came down the back and said to you all something along the lines of 'its ok, the aircraft is as safe as it needs to be' (as Mr Torpey quoted the other night) how many of you would get off? Quite a few I would suggest.
This is a problem of money, simple as that, and I have little doubt that the coroners verdict will crucify the RAF. It will show the families and the nation that this governments lack of investment in the Armed Forces is costing lives uneccesarily.
Just off to the Far East for a few days, in an aircraft that is as safe as it is possible to make!
The Winco